Broccoli in Tomato Sauce, Two Ways

I cooked up a lovely purplish-green broccoli I got at the farmers' market last weekend in two different tomato sauces, one Italian, one Indian. The Indian was my favorite microwave vindaloo sauce care of Julie Sahni's Moghul Microwave, one of my favorite cookbooks), out of which I have gotten so much mileage. The Italian was from Arthur Schwartz's Naples at Table, my culinary Bible for cooking like my napoletani ancestors. I made his simple smooth Campanian tomato sauce, using San Marzano maters and doubling the recipe so I could have some for future use. I took a cue from the Amateur Gourmet and added a little tomato paste and some sprigs of basil, which Schwartz's recipe does not suggest. I made the vindaloo the way I always do, but substituting smoked paprika for the regular.

I steamed half a small head of broccoli, cut up into its branches, in a pot with about a cup of Neapolitan tomato sauce. The other half of the broccoli I put into a cup of vindaloo sauce and microwaved it, covered, for 4 minutes. I put half of each on a bed of basmati rice and went to town.


With it, I put some Brussel sprouts that I cooked in olive oil, shallots and garlic yesterday. I just caramelized the shallot and garlic, then cut the stems off the sprouts and cut the sprouts in half. 15 minutes later, with the occasional stir, and it was done. I did this because I was going into sugar overload yesterday, and wanted a savory snack. I found a recipe like this online, so I can't take credit.

Altogether, it's a very tasty vegetarian meal, as I just realized.